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Leon Haslam remains second in the eni FIM Superbike World Championship following the Aragón Round, but with the gap to Jonathan Rea having increased from ten to 26 points. Despite this fact, the Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils rider was encouraged by events in Spain, as he had been braced for a weekend of damage limitation.

“Over the moon, actually,” the Englishman affirmed. “We knew both Ducati and Kawasaki – with this either being a test track or based on previous results – were going to be strong. In Race 1, we were where I thought we were going to be, plus some extra problems. In Race 2, with hotter conditions and some changes from the team, we actually managed to take the fight to Jonathan. I am a little disappointed I couldn’t challenge him, but for me it was nearly a perfect race with what we had. I come away with my first Aragon podium and now go to Assen, which is a track I enjoy a lot.”

On Saturday, Haslam had taken a surprise pole position after making bike adjustments.

“We were working on geometry all the time, trying to match the Kawasaki on nimbleness,” he explains. “We have strengths as well as they have, so now we just need to work on our weaknesses a bit more. Definitely the hotter conditions helped us a lot, but in the cooler conditions we didn’t have any answer. Hopefully we have a few hot races coming!”

Team-mate Jordi Torres also enjoyed a strong weekend in Aragon, achieving top five finishes in the form of a fifth and fourth place in the pair of races.